Desert Wheat a Champions Day Veteran

Senior citizen Desert Wheat, the 7-year-old owned by Wachtel Stable, Brous Stable and J D. Lee and the 2-1 morning line favorite in Saturday’s $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf, ran in his first race four months after the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic choice Brittlyn Stable’s Star Guitar  was born.

And Desert Wheat won for the first time five months after the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies favorite – Jac Mac Stable’s Superior Storm – was foaled for her owner-breeder Jack Dickerson.

To their credit, Star Guitar and Superior Storm will break new ground should either of them become the first four-time winners in Champions Day history on Saturday, but Desert Wheat won the Champions Day Turf for the first time in 2006 as a 3-year-old facing older horses – one year before Star Guitar and Superior Storm won the Champions Day Juvenile and Champions Day Lassie respectively in 2007.  

Last year, Desert Wheat, who hails from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, came back to win the Champions Day Turf again in his last month as a 6-year-old, and that was after finishing a close third in the Turf in 2007 and second by a neck in 2008.

Has the son of Wheaton, out of an Irish-bred Royal Academy mare, lost a step? Who better to ask than Mott assistant Rudolphe Brisset, the young horseman who galloped Desert Wheat here at Fair Grounds during the 2007-2008 years, returned to his native France for 15 months, and then came back to rejoin Mott last summer at Saratoga?

“I don’t think so,” said Brisset during training hours Friday at Fair Grounds. “To me, he seems like the same horse he always was. I’ve been galloping him here since I’ve been down here in New Orleans, and to me he’s the same horse he was three years ago. He’s a very smart horse for sure, and he knows who’s on his back and what they want him to do.

“Obviously, we don’t want rain before he runs (Saturday),” said Brisset. “We want him to have firm going over the grass. He much prefers firm going but he gives you his best every time no matter what the track is.”

In his most recent start in Fair Grounds’ third running of the $60,000 Mr. Sulu Stakes Nov. 26, Desert Wheat lost his bid for a “three-peat” in that stakes when he finished third, beaten two lengths for the win after the race was taken off the grass and run over a sloppy main track.

“He just doesn’t seem to have quite the same kick when he runs over a track like that,” said Brisset, “but he still ran his heart out. That’s all you can ask.

“He also drew the number one post position for Saturday’s race,” said Brisset, “but with his style of running (coming from off the pace), I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I think he’ll run very well.”

Brisset, although he was at Fair Grounds running the local Mott barn full time when he was here in past winters, will be leaving shortly to join Mott in South Florida at Payson Park. After his departure, Mott’s assistant Mike Kaetzel, who has been in charge of Mott’s Fair Grounds string for the past two years, is expected to be returning in that capacity for the remainder of Fair Grounds 2010-2011 meeting.